Reflections on Reading defeat

Regular readers to Vital Pompey will know that I invariable do a 'reflection' - basically a brief look back at what I thought and what management did, with quotes attributed - on a game, and usually do this within 24-hours of the result.

With a house move, football travel Saturday, a housewarming party - at my brothers after - that night and the necessary unpacking and setting up on Sunday/this morning I have not really had a chance, until now...

You would have also seen some brief thoughts from myself about some 'unsavoury incidents' at the weekend (Well played Steve Cotterill - here) that also touched, very briefly, on a few areas although with a little longer to reflect and ponder here are some late thoughts on in the wake of that 2-0 defeat at Reading...

I will not include any direct quotes from Steve Cotterill although my thoughts will be based on what he said really.

Where to begin?

Well at the beginning I guess with the main reason we lost - Dave Kitson!

The guy continued in the same way as he has for most of his Pompey career, disappointingly...

A lot has been said about him (This is a good forum thread - here) but whatever Cotterill says you can and should blame him because he did have 3, and they were 3 of the best chances you could hope for - if a striker gets as many gifted opportunities as he did at Reading in 3 or 4 games, let alone a solitary 90 minutes, you would be delighted and you, as a fan, would 'expect' them to put away at least 50% of these chances!

Kitson had a cracking 100% record, of failures...

We could, and should, have been 3-0, at least, up by the time Reading went ahead.

Then we come onto Paddy Ashdown.

He has, if I am completely honest, surpassed my expectations of him this season although from seeing it as it happened - I have not had a chance to view any footage yet - he did seem to drop a clanger for their opener?

It was almost as if he dived over the ball?

Yep it was a decent strike from range but he should have saved it - couple this mistake with Kitson's shocking finishing and it was an uphill battle from then on in.

Factor in mistakes from the officials and it was job done!

I have no issue with Rocha John Rocha's sending off, it was a red, although I am still far from convinced it was a penalty too.

So, Mr Friend and his colleagues did us little favours, although we were the real architects of our own downfall.

When you make needless mistakes, have some dubious calls against you and miss as many chances - real clear-cut ones at that - you will be punished, especially by the better teams.

That said Reading were in no way superior to us...

You can argue that the 'play-off dream' for many is still alive, this result has not really done that much damage in a funny kind of way although it is almost time to fully accept that we have, when all is said and done, had a fantastic season so not only to have avoided relegation but be pretty sure of 'midtable stability' is a good result.